Dilip Kumar urged PM Nawaz Sharif to defuse Kargil tension: report

ISLAMABAD: Bollywood legend Dilip Kumar had reportedly urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the behest of then Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 to help defuse Kargil tension.

The claim was made in a book ‘Neither A Hawk Nor A Dove’ by Pakistan’s former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.

“Kasuri quoted an aide of Sharif as confiding in him that in the middle of a conversation in July 1999 between the Pakistan prime minister and India’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the latter handed the phone to Dilip Kumar who was listening in.”

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

According to the report, Sharif was stumped at first as he is a big fan of the actor.

According to the report, “the Pakistani premier did not believe it was his hero on the phone,” Kasuri was quoted as saying. “Dilip Kumar assured him it was indeed he speaking, and he was concerned about the flare-up on the Kargil heights. He urged Sharif to help defuse the crisis quickly as that would be the right thing to do in the interest of the people on both sides.”